The fund will assist Gulf Coast trans, intersex, and genderqueer survivors recover from this disaster.

The Texas Gulf Coast trans community is facing a catastrophic and ongoing natural disaster resulting from Hurricane Harvey which made landfall as a category 4 hurricane, becoming a massive and slow-moving tropical storm resulting in historic-levels of flooding. Numerous members of the trans community are displaced and have lost everything.

The Transgender Foundation of America created this disaster relief fund because trans, intersex, and genderqueer individuals have historically experienced significant difficulties in natural disaster situations. Worse, recent attacks by lawmakers have resulted in heightened hostility against local trans people. This fund will be used to help our historically underserved community recover from this catastrophic event. If needed, the fund will also assist with burial costs for community members who’ve lost their lives in this historic disaster.

Early Responders: THANK YOU!

We would like to thank both the State of Texas and City of Houston chapters of the National Organization for Women supplying the initial funding to establish the Trans Disaster Relief Fund!

About the Transgender Foundation of America

Organized in 1998, the Transgender Foundation of America (TFA) is a Houston-based grassroots nonprofit organization that obtained its 501c3 nonprofit status (EIN: 76-0670632) in 2001. TFA was brought into existence through the hard work and support of its parent organization, the Gulf Coast Transgender Community (GCTC), which traces its roots back to 1965. In addition to TFA, GCTC was instrumental in organizing pioneering organizations like the Texas Association for Transsexual Support and historic events such as the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy. GCTC’s spirit lives on in the TFA mission of improving the quality of life for transgender people.

TFA facilitates numerous trans support groups and community events such as the Unity Banquet, now in its 25th year. Additionally, it maintains the Transgender Archive and provides annual scholarships to trans-supportive academics, represents trans health concerns with health departments across the nation, trains organizations, companies, and schools throughout the nation and pioneered trans homeless, social, and medical services.

About the TransAdvocate

Founded in 2002 the TransAdvocate is the leading source of original investigative news and nuanced commentary from a boots-on-the-ground trans advocate perspective. The TransAdvocate exists to give a voice to trans advocates in a new media environment. What sets the TransAdvocate apart is its commitment to publishing contextual pieces based upon original investigative effort. Specifically, the TransAdvocate focuses on watchdogging media tropes and misinformation that gains social currency. We’re willing to do what it takes to expose hate, especially when hate is being peddled as reason, faith, or journalism.

TransAdvocate is a member of the Houston Transgender Unity Committee (HTUC) and its archival materials are maintained by the Houston Transgender Archive. The TransAdvocate facilitates:

The Conversations Project (TCP), a historical project that seeks to bring attention to a decades-old intersectional trans, intersex, and genderqueer inclusive radical feminist tradition. TCP publishes a journal and is serialized at the Feminist Times.

Cristan Williams is a trans historian and pioneer in addressing the practical needs of the transgender community. She started the first trans homeless shelter in the South and co-founded the first federally funded trans-only homeless program, pioneered affordable healthcare for trans people in the Houston area, won the right for trans people to change their gender on Texas ID prior to surgery, started numerous trans social service programs and founded the Transgender Center as well as the Transgender Archives. Cristan is the editor at the social justice sites TransAdvocate.com and TheTERFs.com, is a long-term member and previous chair of the City of Houston HIV Prevention Planning Group.

About Us

The TransAdvocate aims to improve the lives of transgender people through investigative news and nuanced commentary from a boots-on-the-ground trans advocate perspective. What sets the TransAdvocate apart is its commitment to publishing contextual pieces based on original investigative effort. In other words, we don’t simply repeat the news from other media sources, we report the news as discovered through actual investigative work and fact-checking... More